Sony Computer Entertainment Inc (SCEI) has added support for RSS (really simple syndication) and Windows Media Audio files to its PlayStation Portable (PSP) with a firmware update available from Tuesday.

The RSS support appears as a button in the PSP's network menu alongside the existing Internet browser and LocationFree Player icons. Users can add RSS feeds from Web sites they visit by clicking on the relevant RSS feed buttons or links and then check these feeds through the RSS Channel menu. Support for podcasts is also included.

The Windows Media Audio support allows playback of WMA files through the PSP's music menu. Certain WMA files, including WMA9 Professional, WMA9 Lossless and copyright-protected files like those available through commercial download services are not supported.

Other new features added in the firmware 2.60 update include the ability to download copyright-protected video directly to the PSP's MemoryStick Duo memory card from the system's Web browser. In the past, video downloads of commercial content had to be done on a PC and then transferred to the PSP.

Support for simplified Chinese (GB18030) and traditional Chinese (Big5) character encoding has also been added to the Web browser.

The latest update, which is available via the PSP's network update function or from SCEI's Web site, takes the PSP firmware to version 2.60.